


Ice

by sparklight



Category: Transformers (Dreamwave Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-31
Updated: 2012-12-31
Packaged: 2017-11-23 02:45:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/617230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparklight/pseuds/sparklight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scourge wasn't the only thing the ice had been hiding, but since everybody had been busy, it took Starscream returning to Earth to find out what else was there. And now he has to decide what to do with the past he just unearthed. Skywarp offers unwanted insight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ice

"Be _careful_ with that, you blasted idiot! I'm taking your _components_ apart if you crush anything with your clumsy hands!" Starscream hovered in the air by Bruticus' shoulder, arms crossed while he stared down as the large hole was widened to make sure the pillar that stood in the center could be safely extracted. He knew he'd picked up something more during the fight with the Autobots over the escape pod that stupid-looking "Decepticon" had been in. There had just been no time to check up on it since One-Eye had shown up and rounded them up. Key-word "had been", because he was his own master now. Megatron gone, Shockwave either gone or severely trounced by the Autobots, and _he_ was here, back on Earth, having found not just the _Nemesis_ after a bit of skill, luck and observation, but--- The roaring noise of ice breaking apart as Bruticus finally pulled up the block of ice he'd been working on separating yanked Starscream out of his contemplation and he whirled around to hit Bruticus in the helm.

"Put it down, _now_!" Immediately diving down to examine it closer, Starscream had barely the time to land before the fuzzy view suggested something that made everything sort of stutter and _flicker_ , his engine stalling for several astroseconds. That was... 

The ice obscured a lot, being partly opaque and warping the view, but upping the sensitivity and changing his focus, it slowly became sharper. Starscream stared, and wondered what the _frag_ had happened. Because no matter how slightly off everything was that... That was Jetfire, he was _sure_ of it. Sure of it, because besides the colours and the design elements that certainly were indicative on an air guardian, he merely needed to reach out... 

His EM field was already swelling, imperiously ignoring the ice to smack against the form held _within_. It took several actual seconds, seconds in which Starscream had time to wonder if he wanted confirmation, if he even wanted some sort of reaction in response because what would he even do if it actually _was_ Jetfire--- The thought was relegated to a lower priority queue as his field met with a sluggish and faint, but still there brush of stubborn curiosity. Of course, that's not what it _literally_ was, but Starscream could well imagine those emotions lying beneath the heavy and yet curiously light field touching his, even if Jetfire wasn't actually aware of anything, because the slowness of his field told everything.

A field that marked a mech deep not just in stasis lock but suspended animation, the pulse of it so slow only Jetfire's colour, shaded by the greenish-blue of the heart of glacier ice could give proof of life if you didn't have the patience to stand still. At least the red spots were still red, and his cursory scan implied at least some blue somewhere according to the arrangement of the colour nanites, but he couldn't tell where, exactly---

"Idiotic---!" Snarling, mostly at himself, Starscream jerked back from the block of ice, whirling around and thoroughly ignoring Bruticus where he stood off to the side, rumbling quietly. If Bruticus could look uncomfortable, that was probably what he looked like. Because while the ice was holding not just Starscream but the many times heavier Bruticus, the quiet, many hics deep mutters and even snaps of ice subtly moving was, admittedly, somewhat unsettling. Hands working at his sides, Starscream glowered. He should tell Bruticus to lift that over-dimensioned cannon-rifle and start blasting away at the ice. He should have Bruticus _bury_ the block again, he should go find a volcano, he should--- 

"I don't get what you're _doing_ here, but it doesn't surprise me you'd end up _buried_ , you overgrown weather vane. And what have you _done_ with yourself!? You-- Augh!" Engine revving, Starscream whirled back around again and punched the ice, sending fine cracks out from the epicenter, but they were merely surface ones. Cracks that warped the view of the offline cybertronian within, long, elegant variable-sweep wings tucked down along his sides, and like that even the injuries were hard to tell that they were there. Injuries that only partly would have come from Jetfire ending up... however he'd ended up here. Ice and snow would've hit his hot frame, and it'd have melted and if Jetfire couldn't move, it'd have started to seep into seams and joints and then when his frame had started to cool, it'd have frozen, expanding. Then there was the ice flexing and moving around him for however long he'd been here. This would be a _delicate_ endeavour. It would take _time_ to get Jetfire out of the ice, and further, _should he_ even--- Growling, he whirled around, pointing up at Bruticus.

"Get him. We're leaving. I'm not gonna stay out here any longer than I need to." He could, after all, evaluate the situation and decide what to do about Jetfire - and how useful keeping, repairing, or killing him would be - after they got back to the Nemesis.

 

***  
Staring at the scrolling list of injuries the CR chamber was logging in preparation for starting its cycle, Starscream vaguely wondered how nothing vital in the way of energon lines, tanks or processor hadn't been destroyed, punctured or warped. The spark chamber was one of the safest and well-protected parts, even if Jetfire's chestplates were just a degree warped. But either way, it was safely tucked away behind and surrounded by many layers of armour and more or less vital circuitry, cables and other parts. His helm was a lot more vulnerable, and the cracks in the cockpit canopy, stick in his middle like the rest of them instead of mounted in an array on his right arm, told of the damage, the danger. At least _they_ had been in stasis on the Ark lodged safely in a mountain. This mech, who _was_ Jetfire, though of course Starscream knew it would be, it wasn't as if he could _mistake_ that EM field or the design or that stupid face, even if he couldn't see it right now--- Shaking his helm, red optics narrowed and he went back to considering the situation. Jetfire had, compared to them, been stuck in ice, a moving - bah! - organic medium that would've exerted wear and tear even as it _entombed and preserved_. But no, Jetfire was... well, rather terribly injured, there was no way around that, but nothing that would was lethal if a bit of care was taken, and that care would come courtesy of the CR chamber and the ice being melted slowly. None of this obviously answered _other_ questions.

"What are you even doing here, you insufferable--- I should..." Pacing in front of the CR chamber, hands wildly gesticulating about him as he glared from floor to tank and back again. He should turn the chamber off. Melt the ice, and then shoot the _traitorous slagger_ just as he was coming out of stasis lock so he could see _who_ was going to end his pathetic existence. Like he should've done during so many battles back on Cybertron, like he should've done but hadn't quite... Starscream stopped, hands balled into fists at his sides, a sneer on his faceplates.

"I can't believe you have the _ball bearings_ to show your ugly viso---" Cutting himself off, Starscream stared through the ice obstructing his view and then reviewed the schematics the CR chamber had given him. No, no visor any more. The thing covering Jetfire's helm _was_ an external helmet, as he'd thought, and while the schematics had given him a view of the helm beneath and the arrangement of colour nanites in the outermost alloy layer, it wasn't the same as seeing the new design with his own optics.

"... At least you got rid of that piece of scrap... You looked _really, fragging stupid_. Not that you don't always look stupid, but at least you have a proper helm now and not that utterly _ridiculous_ mask!" Starscream started pacing again, but soon stopped to whirl and point at the still, and still-frozen form of the air guardian within the CR chamber, now even _larger_ (both in weight, height, width and mass) than before. "You. I _can't believe_ you. Did you find out we were here? Were you going to swoop in to rescue your foolish Autobot friends, even if they don't trust you? Always so slagging _self-sacrificing_! Or were you actually going to _apologise_? Join back up? As if I--- we'd let you." Nevermind that Grimlock had (re-)joined them for a short while just about a year ago. "But no. The _upstanding and virtuous_ Jetfire, a _traitor_ to the cause he first joined up with wouldn't _do that_ , now would he? You didn't even say you were leaving to---"

"Wow, Starscream. This is worthy of its own prime-time slot!"

Starscream whirled around, arms raised, null-rays whining as they powered up. Skywarp just smirked at him, leaning in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chassis, keeping the automatic doors from sliding shut.

"Get. out," he hissed, teeth clenched and vocalizer nearly glitching as the pitch dipped from the first syllable and went further down during the rest. Skywarp shrugged and straightened from his lean, but walked _in_ instead of leaving, ignoring Starscream's livid glare and slightly trembling fists as he circled the CR chamber slowly.

"Y'know, without that stupid visor, I can kinda see what you saw in him... Or should that be _see_ in him?" Skywarp laughed and quickly slid away from where he'd stopped next to the chamber. The null-ray shot splashed harmlessly into the floor.

"I'd be careful with that if I were you, Starscream. You don't want it to hit the tank, now do you? Not when you've been _reunited_ with your long-lost _partner_ after he left and all that slaggin' dramatic _drama_ ," Skywarp smirked, and Starscream stalked up to the black Seeker, who didn't back off this time, but there was a distinct twitch and his optics flickered around the room before landing back at Starscream.

"He. is. a. tool." Starscream stabbed a finger into Skywarp's cockpit canopy for each separate word, snarl reverberating in time with his growling engine. "And a tool I'm not even sure would be useful, or if I _want_ to use it, considering what he's done, and that he's an _Autobot_." 

Skywarp shifted in place and then huffed, stepping back so he could wave away the poking finger. 

"Uh-huh. Whatever you say, Screamer." Skywarp stepped close again, one hand gesturing over to the humming tank and its contents, and he didn't give Starscream time to blow up over the hated nickname. " _Tools_ don't have you rantin' and ravin' like a _jilted girlfriend_. 'Sides, you oughta have _known_ he'd leave! Even if he was agreeing with some of it, you must've known somewhere that he _would_ leave. And it was _really slaggin' long ago_ now. Why're you still so _torqued_ , you glitch?" Skywarp warped away right as the null-ray shot cut through the space he _should_ have been, his laughter reverbing strangely as he relocated to the doorway again.

"Are you just upset over all the _missed time_ , especially now that he's even bigger than before? 'Cause I _know_ how you feel 'bout that. That and pain," Skywarp snickered and had to warp, _again_ , but only moved a bare hand's span to the side in the doorway. "But I s'pose that's what happens when you're a glitch with the wrong sort of plug in your connector---" Skywarp's taunting was cut off as he warped away yet again to avoid being shot with a dangerously powered-up null-ray. This time, he was gone. There was a rattle from Starscream's engine, and his cooling vents were working to dump the heat from his raised temperature as he stalked up to the CR chamber. Glaring at the frame within, his hand crept out to the controls... and then he slammed his fist into the clear covering of the tank and stalked out.

"Tools are meant to be used, so that's what I'm gonna do. When I _need_ to, and no sooner." That was all he'd do, and that was all that would happen. It was all about the connection Jetfire still had to him, the connection that'd make Jetfire amenable to help him. Starscream steadfastly ignored that said connection went both ways. _He_ was connected to Jetfire as well, no matter what he claimed. No matter that he'd tried and failed so many times to terminate said connection. They both had. Hadn't _quite_ been able to finish it on either end. Right now, all that Starscream bothered to remember was that _Jetfire_ hadn't been able to finish him, because that was what was useful here. Skywarp's blathering, on the other hand _wasn't_.

Skywarp, for all of his being so very stupid, was sometimes annoyingly capable of seeing the core of personal behaviours and motivations. But Starscream wasn't even acknowledging that. He had plans to make. Plans that could take their time, because it wasn't as if Jetfire would be repaired and unthawed in kliks, or even a megacycle or two. It'd take time, and he'd _use_ that time as he needed. Who knew what would happen between now and whenever Jetfire was finally out of that tank? Besides, Jetfire wasn't Starscream's only concern, there were after all still Autobots on the planet. Autobots, and their perfectly useable, if mostly buried, ship. The _Nemesis_ would take more effort to get not just off the ground, but _out of the water_ so why not focus on what was more reachable at the moment? The room went dark as he left it, the only glow coming from the faint heat of the device working to melt the ice that surrounded the form trapped within the CR chamber, and the numbers and glowing lights of the chamber's readouts and controls.


End file.
